hey there everybody and welcome to this video on
trees an introduction to trauma informed care i'm your host dr dawn elise snipes
the trauma-informed approach means creating an environment that is safe for people to grow to
explore and to acknowledge their trauma and you can remember the steps in the trauma-informed
approach with the mnemonic device trees t stands for trauma identification r stands
for recognize and validate e stands for empower e stands for empathize and s stands for support
so let's talk about each one of those really quickly the first step is trauma identification
when you are talking with somebody recognizing and it doesn't even just have to be a counselor
or a nurse or a doctor when you're talking to anybody recognize that there is a likelihood
high likelihood even that they've experienced some kind of trauma in their life now not
everybody who experiences trauma develops a traumatic reaction but some people will
so the first step is trauma identification and trauma generally falls into two basic categories
and i'm grossly over generalizing here but the first category is abuse or physical or emotional
harm and this can come from a caregiver this can come from a stranger this can come from you know
an act of nature there it was something that caused the person physical or emotional harm
the second major category is abandonment slash rejection when people feel abandoned and
that could be physical abandonment abandonment because somebody left because somebody died or
emotional abandonment because the person the caregiver the loved one the friend
was not emotionally available or able to connect with the person and rejection kind of falls
in there because when we experience rejection sometimes we can uh fear abandonment as a result
when these things happen and the person has a sense of unsafeness and helplessness
that does not get addressed they can develop traumatic reactions so r stands for recognize
and validate the impact of the trauma on the person's health mental health and relationships
we're going to talk a little bit about that on the next slide the first e stands for empower
the person to make informed decisions about how to proceed to enhance or regain their sense of safety
the first step for anybody is to feel safe until you feel safe it's hard to be vulnerable it's
hard to move past that trauma so we're needing to help people figure out what can they do to
help themselves feel safe in their own skin in their house at work and in relationships
and that's going to differ for each person the second e stands for empathize this is hard work
it is terrifying work so we want to be empathetic to people's reactions their apprehensions etc
and s is stands for support we want to provide support for people when they're going through
this their past has impacted their thoughts their behaviors their emotions their reactions their
relationships you know all kinds of things however the person now has the opportunity to recognize
why they react the way they do and choose how they're going to take that those experiences
that they've had and deal with them henceforth how are they going to let those experiences
continue to impact their life and you can't undo something once it's happened but you can choose
to either let it make you stronger and use it to make you stronger more informed and safer
or continue to stay in a state of fear and hyper vigilance
common signs of trauma and when i work with people i really want them to reflect
on in what ways is this behavior protective when someone does something maybe they tend to get
angry really easy or they're in unstable relationships in what ways is that protective
in what ways is it protective for them to lash out or to refuse to get vulnerable or to be the
one that always breaks off that relationship as soon as it starts to get too comfortable
so it's important to be curious common signs of trauma avoidance of thoughts feelings physical
sensations people places or activities that bring up memories related to the trauma now sometimes
people don't have overt memories they may have bodily sensations things that happened when you
were very young you may not have overt memories of what happened but when something happens you
start feeling very anxious very angry very irritable and that can be a sign that your
brain's trying to tell you something they're trying to tell you we've been in a situation
like this before and it was no good so you need to be alert because there might be a threat
people's behaviors people's reactions are going to be different based on what their trauma was
but it is it is important to step back and say okay in what ways is this behavior potentially
protecting a person from feeling threatened again from experiencing that pain again the
second characteristic is persistent and elevated negative evaluations about yourself others and
the world when you are in a situation in which you feel unsafe it is not uncommon to over generalize
that feeling and feel like you're never going to be safe again and you may not especially again
if it happens when you're very young you may not overtly make that decision but you may have grown
up feeling that the world was not safe that others were malevolent in their in their intentions
so it's important to recognize that if you've experienced malevolence from someone you
may have internalized that and persistent negative evaluations persistent negativity
and suspiciousness may be a way that you're protecting yourself from being victimized again
the third is a negative emotional state depression anxiety anger and or mood lability so you may be
happy sometimes and then all of a sudden it doesn't take much to put you in a bad mood
or you may be in a bad mood or unhappy most of the time and we want to recognize that and look
at where that might be coming from now people get
depressed for a variety of reasons they have anxiety and anger for a variety of reasons
all of these are very helpful healthy quote normal emotions they're designed to tell you
to do something but when it when you feel this way most days for an extended period of time
then you want to examine what might be going on it could be trauma it could be something else
but recognizing depression reflects a sense of hopelessness and helplessness
anxiety represents a sense of fear that there's a threat and anger is another way of responding
to a threat sometimes you run from it sometimes you flee sometimes you fight and you say no not
going there again so i am going to bow up and be as you know threatening as possible in response
to protect myself feeling detached from others when people have experienced trauma a lot of times
it's hard to empathize it's hard to be vulnerable it's hard to develop a connection out of fear
that someone else is going to hurt them difficulty concentrating is a common symptom
that goes along often with hyper vigilance or being very attuned being overly alert to
any indication that there might be harm rejection or abandonment when you are hyper vigilant
when you are on constant you know scanning for any indication any micro expression of
harm rejection or abandonment it's going to be hard to concentrate because you've got all the
stimuli coming in and you're constantly scanning you don't feel safe hyper vigilance happens
in because that's the brain's way of trying to tell the person you're not safe you need to be on
guard a heightened startle response makes sense if you don't feel safe when something happens
you're probably going to startle easier impulsive or self-destructive behavior and this could be um
acting out you know putting your hand through a wall it could be uh using substances even shopping
to excess a lot of these behaviors are designed to either protect the person or to numb the feelings
that go along with memories of trauma irritability or aggressive behavior are
anger-based behaviors they're threat reactions irritability and aggression
is designed to push away anything that might be threatening and problem sleeping
well if you have hyper vigilance then it's hard to relax enough to get to sleep and when you're
not sleeping well it just intensifies all of these other things so that is a very very quick
and somewhat superficial overview of some of the common signs of trauma and how they might reflect
protective behaviors even though in the present moment an observer might be going that seems
self-destructive or that seems you know like it doesn't make any sense it does make sense behavior
is communication and behavior makes sense it's just a matter of figuring out what is the behavior
trying to communicate and how is it productive or helpful for that person in some kind of way thank
you for being with me and i'll see you next time oh and don't forget to click the subscribe button
um and the bell next to it to be notified when we do put out new videos